I am a BIG believer in making the time you spend in your kitchen really count. By thinking ahead just a little, you can easily do a couple of things at once. This morning, I ended up with an unexpected morning at home with a sick child. Spencer is one of my older kids so he doesn't require a lot of attention when he feels rotten. He is content just laying on the couch. I decided to use this time to my advantage.
I am making yogurt, soaking beans, and precooking a bunch of chicken. The yogurt and the beans don't require constant attention so I got them going and then I shifted to cutting the chicken and frying it up. By the time 2:00 rolls around I will have 8 quart bags of beans and 4 bags of chicken in the freezer along with 2 quarts of yogurt in the refrigerator.
Doing all of this work in one morning means I will speed up dinner prep for many nights in the future. I only dirty so many dishes once and the clean-up is all done by tonight. When I cook beans, I always do more than one variety so I only end up cooking beans every 2-3 months. This goes for the chicken as well. By maximizing your time in the kitchen, you only end up doing a whole day of cooking 8-10 times a year! It really makes it so I can feed my family "from scratch" meals every night.
My next day in the kitchen will be a day of refilling all my pantry mixes - depending on how much energy I end up with, I may just add that to my list today.
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